Help please, something is killing and/or eating my corals...

[Moose]

I have a small 14 gallon frag tank, and in there is all different kinds of coral from birdsnest, hammer, zoas, leather etc frags.

Recently I noticed these clear bubbles on the tips of my birdsnest, I didn't think anything of it figureing, hey, maybe its just new growth or something as i've dipped everything going in to the tank.
Yesterday, I came home a found that the tips of the birdsnest are gone, clearly eaten or killed off, and now today these bubble things are on my other frags...

I put my hand in the tank, and touched the bubbles and some floated to the top???? you can knock them off the frags but it is definatly harming the corals....
Anyone have any idea what these could be???????????????

I will try to get a picture up tomorrow as my lights are off right now...
Any help ??

 

[jango]

sounds like they are bleaching. Is the frag tank hooked to the rest of your system? How close is the lps to the sps? Some corals don't like to be near each other and don't play nice...

 

[Moose]

Here are some pictures, still have no idea, nothing is touching each other except zoas, just a 14 biocube with a sera skimmer, refugium in back, not hooked up to the main tank, its got the two compacts and two additional LED strips

 

[PasstheTorch]

Looks like maybe an algae or a bacteria? Idk but could be cyno or something of the like? An expert might chime in and help ya.

 

[Turbosnail]

Looks like it could be the start of dinoflatulates(spelling).

 

[Moose]

If its that, what is my best course of action? How is this treated best?

 

[willray]

Hard to tell but it does look like the beginning of dino's could be cyno but don't think so and hope I'm wrong.
Loosing snails yet? This is a form of red tide so to speak and is toxic esp to snails...anything that eats it or it covers.If the strands get longer and when touched feels really slippery and really slimy then you have an issue to deal with.There is not 1 fix for it...naturally or otherwise,but many actions.High ph, black out, dosing hydrogen peroxide...etc.

 

[Moose]

oh awesome... when I touch them they break off, some float to the top, not losing snails yet no.... is this contagious if I were to dip and transfer the frags etc, I have a rbta in there as well and wouldn't like to loose it... any ideas where to start,,

 

[willray]

Yup! Do a search for dinos, dinoflagellates or/and hydrogen peroxide either in BRS or google.
This is from me about a month ago http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?108345-hydrogen-peroxide-dosing&highlight=dinos

 

[reefkeeper2]

First off, the tips of your sps frags had to die back first for anything like algae or dinos to begin to grow on them. I think you will find that your zoas are not damaged and the algae (which looks like cyano or dinos) are growing between them. Check your alk. An alk swing, likely high can burn the tips of growing sps. I would cut the dead ends off down a little past the living tissue. Use a turkey baster to keep them clean as best you can while you fight your algae problems. Shoot for stable alk and low nutrients in your water. Much easier said than done!

 

[delta]

Looks like bacteria you need to go back to basics. Water changes (more frequent and larger), cut back on feeding, keep your skimmer at maximum performance and over all husbandry needs to be stepped up. If you are dosing anything like vodka,zeovit or biopellets you will need to adjust within the guidelines of those systems

Although for Cyano you can treat to kill it if you don't fix the problem it will come back.

 

[jenreef]

i would do the hydro peroxide doseing. i did it before willray and it it got rid of all my algae and nusance stuff i also increased my flow while i was doseing

 

[stingythingy45]

Do you feed the corals in this tank?

 

[AgioNiko]

Agree Edith delta and teetotaler. Was the birdsnest the first coral that suffered. They usually are very intolerable to bad water chemistry and a good early warning to some change to the system. I'm suspecting a alk swing. Did u have good growth and then got out of ur daily routine of dosing? What's ur alk at? What was it kept at?

 

[Moose]

yes, we feed lots of different stuff to the corals. I added more flow, and ending up picking up chemi-clean which was recommended by our local store. It definatly worked right away, and it hasn't been back for now. Kept the more flow and made sure the frag rack was hit good.
The zoas were not hurt, but the birdsnests etc were,

 

[willray]

Chem clean is not a solution only a visual band aid to the problem.That problem being your overfeeding....most corals do not need to be fed foods,they can benefit from feeding but its not necessary.

 

[stingythingy45]

yes, we feed lots of different stuff to the corals. I added more flow, and ending up picking up chemi-clean which was recommended by our local store. It definatly worked right away, and it hasn't been back for now. Kept the more flow and made sure the frag rack was hit good.
The zoas were not hurt, but the birdsnests etc were,

Then feeding is your problem.You don't need to feed many species of corals.
And this is not dinos it's cyanobacteria.

 

[Ray]

How often do you feed the corals? I will target feed my corals once or twice a month and only feed my fish every other day or two